The How to Take Pictures of Stars Guide is the product of collaboration between Kevin Choi from CapturetheMoment.pics and Viktor Elizarov from PhotoTraces.com.
At some level within the images journey, each photographer entertains the potential for entering into astrophotography. But, for a lot of newcomers, it’s a scary proposition due to two main misconceptions.
Misconception One
The tools for astrophotography is prohibitively costly and, in consequence, is out of attain for many newcomers and hobbyists.
This was true even 5 to seven years in the past when a mixture of cameras able to producing high quality pictures at excessive ISO paired with a quick and vast angle lens would value you wherever from $4,000 to $5,000.
But, lately, issues have drastically modified. Rapid advances in sensor expertise permit us to make use of entry degree cameras from practically any producer to {photograph} the celebrities. Also, third celebration lens producers, largely these from Asia, lastly achieved the right steadiness between the standard of lenses and value.
We will deal with the tools you’ll want to {photograph} the celebrities in nice element within the Equipment part however, it’s value mentioning now which you can have all of the tools crucial for astrophotography for beneath $1,000.
Misconception Two
The second false impression is that the strategy of photographing the celebrities is simply too advanced for many newcomers. This is totally false. The astrophotography course of is definitely quite simple and simple. But, what makes the method extra time consuming than conventional panorama images is preparation and scouting.
What is Astrophotography in Simple Terms?
When you have a look at the sky at night time with a unadorned eye, you see solely the brightest stars and, even then, the brightest are nonetheless very dim.
Astrophotography permits us to amplify the brightness of the celebrities by conserving the digicam’s shutter open for an extended time frame, which lets the digicam sensor seize far more mild than what’s attainable with our eyes.
As a end result, astrophotography allows us to {photograph} stars that aren’t seen to the bare eye.
Equipment
Even although location is an important a part of the astrophotography equation, there’s clearly no approach to {photograph} stars with out the correct tools.
There are 5 items of apparatus you want, however solely three are important.
1. Camera
You want a digicam with handbook controls that may produce respectable, high quality photographs at ISO 1600-3200. The excellent news is that the majority fashionable cameras already fall beneath this class.
2. Lens
The Milky Way is unfold broadly throughout the sky and is a really dim topic. Because of this, you want a large and quick lens.
If you wish to shoot the entire Milky Way in a single shoot, you will have a lens wider than 24mm on a full body digicam or 18mm on APS-C.
For the aperture, f4 is sweet, f2.8 is nice, any lens with aperture quicker than f2.8 is great.
3. Tripod
This might be an important a part of the complete astrophotography setup. When utilizing a shutter pace of round 20-30 sec, even the slightest motion of the digicam will break your photographs. This implies that it isn’t sufficient to make use of simply any tripod, it’s important that it’s rock stable.
4. Headlamp
This is an non-obligatory piece of apparatus that may be changed with any customary flashlight.
5. Remote Shutter Release
The distant shutter launch is one other non-obligatory piece of apparatus. It could be changed by the two sec delay performance on most cameras.
Kevin’s Equipment
Both the Nikon D810 and Canon 100D can produce nice high quality pictures even beneath ISO3200 however, in fact, the Nikon D810 is healthier.
Viktor’s Equipment
I’ve a minimalistic astrophotography setup.
I take advantage of a Sony a6000 digicam and a Rokinon 12mm f2.0 prime lens. I take advantage of a Feisol tripod which, by design, doesn’t have a middle column and is extremely regular even in windy circumstances.
Finding the Milky Way and the Dark Sky
When you begin studying {photograph} the celebrities, the Milky Way is often the primary and hottest object to shoot.
However, it may be a problem to seek out the Milky Way at nighttime sky. Even although all of us reside within the Milky Way galaxy, most individuals by no means see it.
Before going into the technical facets of taking pictures the Milky Way, it will be important that you just first know discover it.
Seasons of the Milky Way
Although the Milky Way is at all times throughout Planet Earth, you see completely different elements of it relying on the completely different seasons and your location.
The finest months to shoot the Milky Way are at all times from March to September. During this time, you’ll be able to {photograph} the Milky Way’s vivid galactic heart.
You may also shoot the Milky Way all through the remainder of the 12 months as a result of, even with out the galactic heart, you possibly can nonetheless create fascinating photographs.
Dark Sky
Another issue that immediately impacts astrophotography is the darkish sky. The Milky Way is dim by itself so even the tiniest trace of sunshine could make it much less seen and tougher to {photograph}.
Light air pollution and moonlight are the 2 most important mild sources that have an effect on astrophotography probably the most.
Light Pollution
Where there are individuals, there’s mild. At night time, that is referred to as mild air pollution. Because of sunshine air pollution, it’s virtually unattainable to {photograph} the celebrities in the course of town.
The finest approach to find areas with minimal mild air pollution is to verify this free on-line useful resource referred to as the Light Pollution Map. You can discover it right here: http://www.lightpollutionmap.information/
Moon Phase
Another supply of sunshine that impacts the darkish sky and photographing the celebrities is the moon. When there’s a full moon, it’s virtually unattainable to seize any stars.
The finest observe is to shoot throughout a brand new moon or to shoot earlier than the moon rises or after it units. By timing the moon good, you possibly can be certain that your digicam is ready to seize the best particulars of the Milky Way.
To verify the moon section, you possibly can go to these web sites:
Kevin’s Scouting Routine
I usually verify the moon section and climate report first. If the day is sweet for taking pictures Milky Way, I’ll then verify StarWalk 2 to see what time I ought to exit. Then, I’ll head to some panorama images group on Facebook and likewise 500px to seek out some new location. If I discover an fascinating panorama location, largely dawn and sundown spot, I’ll then verify Google map to see if the place faces the Milky Way or not.
I prefer to go to places that no individuals have shot Milky Way earlier than to offer myself a problem. If the climate turns all of the sudden cloudy, I nonetheless have an opportunity to shoot a tremendous dawn or sundown.
Viktor’s Scouting Routine
My scouting routine begins with the usual set of instruments I take advantage of for my journey images planning. I take advantage of Google Maps, Google Earth, and 500px.com to seek out fascinating places. I praise them with an android model of Star Walk 2 when scouting particularly for astrophotography.
Focusing
The most important problem of capturing the right picture of the celebrities is to get the celebrities as sharp as attainable. Focusing turns into probably the most important a part of the method. But, everyone knows how troublesome it’s to focus in full darkness.
It sounds easy—you at all times focus to infinity. In idea, all you must do is flip the focusing ring all the best way to the correct. In actuality, nevertheless, it will focus past infinity on most lenses, which is completely illogical from a physics perspective. Focusing past infinity will produce out-of-focus and smooth stars.
Here are a couple of completely different strategies you should use to get the celebrities in focus and sharp:
- While scouting in the course of the day, focus after which make marks in your lens as reminders.
- Know precisely the place infinity is on each lens you personal. Finding infinity could be extra problematic on a zoom lens since, for various focal lengths, infinity can be somewhere else.
- Take a couple of take a look at pictures and verify the sharpness of the celebrities after each shot. Keep adjusting the main focus till you will have the right settings.
Viktor’s Focusing Routine
I’ve a really simplified focusing routine. I’ve just one lens devoted to astrophotography – a handbook prime lens. I do know precisely the place infinity is on the lens however, to make sure the right shot every time, I made a small mark on the lens as a reminder.
Kevin’s Focusing Routine
I take advantage of a special focusing approach with my 14-24mm zoom lens. I change the digicam to a reside view, zoom in to a most, discover a vivid star, and deal with it.
Shooting Technique
As I discussed earlier, taking pictures is without doubt one of the best elements of the complete astrophotography course of. Why? Because you would not have a lot room or flexibility to experiment with quite a lot of completely different settings.
Let me clarify.
The sky is darkish and the celebrities are dim. You use the widest aperture attainable to seize that restricted mild.
The earth is consistently transferring, which limits your selection of shutter pace values. If you transcend a 25-30 sec shutter pace, the impact of star trails turns into apparent which, in flip, makes the celebrities smooth. I personally choose to by no means transcend a 25 sec publicity.
This leaves us with the one parameter we are able to mess around with – the ISO.
When I’m on location, I’ve my digicam in M (handbook) mode. I set the aperture to f2.0 (the widest worth on my lens), the shutter pace to 25 sec, and the ISO to 640. Then, I take a take a look at shot. I preview the picture and analyze the histogram. In most instances, these settings produce an underexposed picture so I begin growing the ISO and analyzing the preview after every shot till I’ve a correctly uncovered picture. From that second on, I hold taking pictures with the identical settings for the remainder of the night time.
Related: Low Light Photography Tips
The shutter pace of 25 seconds just isn’t a great worth. To get sharper stars, I choose to shoot between 15 and 20 seconds, however I additionally need to steadiness this with the ISO worth by not going past ISO3200. I discover that even ISO3200 is a bit an excessive amount of for the Sony a6000 APS-C sensor.
Perhaps an important side of taking pictures is that you just at all times shoot in RAW.
Composition in Astrophotography
Even when you have all of your tools prepared, precisely the place to seek out the Milky Way and precisely what settings to make use of to {photograph} the night time sky, this doesn’t robotically assure that it is possible for you to to supply fascinating images. Astrophotography is not any completely different than some other sort of images as it isn’t sufficient to have all of the technical facets in place. The creative half at all times comes into play.
If you merely {photograph} the sky, your photographs will appear to be sky charts and, whereas they could be technically sound, they’ll doubtless be boring. You must discover a approach to deliver different components apart from the sky into your composition. The components of a scene can function reference factors for the viewer to emphasise the dimensions of the sky.
When you’re taking pictures at night time in pitch black, it’s usually troublesome to visualise your potential compositions; typically, it isn’t even attainable to see the objects of the scene.
I like to recommend addressing the composition side of your astrophotography shoot in the course of the day when you’re scouting the scene. You can take your time with out dashing to evaluate the composition. When you come to the situation at night time, composition turns into a easy technicality – a easy strategy of triggering the shutter.
Editing in Astrophotography
The enhancing a part of astrophotography isn’t any extra difficult than standard panorama enhancing. The solely exception is that you just at all times need to take care of extreme noise.
Here is a straightforward define of enhancing in astrophotography:
Balancing Exposure
Before you begin making use of any results, you first must steadiness and modify the publicity. When you’re taking footage of the sky, they often come out a bit underexposed. Therefore, you must enhance the publicity of the picture till you attain a correctly uncovered starry sky with the Milky Way.
White Balance
The subsequent step is to regulate the white steadiness. When you’re taking image of stars in AWB (auto white steadiness) mode, the digicam usually produces a really heat toned picture.
Since photographs of the night time sky are naturally very darkish, it’s troublesome to determinate if the white steadiness is appropriate or not. But, you possibly can at all times use a way referred to as the “Extreme Saturation Method” to regulate the white steadiness.
Extreme Saturation Method
First, enhance the vibrarance and saturation all the best way as much as 100. Your picture will grow to be oversaturated and have some onerous colour transition.
Don’t fear, you possibly can change it again later.
Next, modify the white steadiness by enjoying with each the temperature and tint sliders with the intention to obtain a very good steadiness of colour transition. You ought to have some yellow within the heart of the Milky Way and blue within the sky.
Finally, change the vibrance and the saturation again to zero. With the right white steadiness, your picture now seems extra pure.
The relaxation is your common enhancing changes. Boost the distinction and readability, enhance the saturation and vibrance till you will have a picture with a vibrant sky and fantastically contrasted stars.
Noise Reduction
Shooting the night time sky at a excessive ISO (1600-3200) sometimes leads to a picture with extreme noise. By growing the distinction and saturation in the course of the enhancing course of, you find yourself amplifying the digital noise much more.
Start lowering the noise by utilizing the Details panel in Lightroom. If you discover it isn’t attainable to realize the specified outcomes, you almost certainly want to make use of a devoted noise discount program.
Kevin’s Favorite Noise Reduction Program
Noise discount is an important a part of astrophotography.
The quantity of noise discount is completely different within the starry sky and the foreground. I take advantage of Nik Define to get the job performed. It permits me to create a layer masks to offer a special diploma of noise discount in a special space.
Viktor’s Favorite Noise Reduction Program
I take advantage of Topaz DeNoise from Topaz Labs each day. I run noise discount with DeNoise on each single picture I edit. It turns into vital when enhancing astro pictures.